The 10 AA Games With the BEST Story

“Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons” (2013)

Long before the grit of A Way Out, the charm of It Takes Two and the phenomenon that is Split Fiction, Josef Fares demonstrated his skills as a storyteller with a bitter tale of brotherhood and loss, all with zero dialogue. With their father fallen ill, a pair of siblings embark on a quest though a fantasy world filled with traps and dangers of every kind. While there is certainly whimsy to be found between the brother’s exploits, there’s also hardship and maturity. To accomplish so much with so little is a testament to the creative powerhouse that is Fares.

“Fort Solis” (2023)

Walking simulators are ironically the toughest of tightropes to walk across, narratively speaking, given that it lives and breathes by the strength of its story rather than its mechanics. To its credit, Fort Solis took that framework, immersed it in the often-saturated sci-fi horror genre, and made it sing. Huge props to the likes of Troy Baker and Roger Clark, who act their assess in this condensed, claustrophobic venture as workers on a Martian colony…where things start to go very, very wrong. The fear is tangible, the performances are pitch perfect, and it just goes to show what a small-scale game can do when it polishes its strengths to a fine finish.

“Psychonauts” (2005)

One of gaming’s timeless tenets - Tim Schafer can write a bloody good game, and his magnum opus is arguably in the mind-bending mastery of the original Psychonauts game. After developing psychic abilities, young Raz joins an institution where he believes his powers will be used as a force for good…only to discover a dark conspiracy lurking beneath the wackiness. By leaping into the psyches of his friends and foes, players not only get to experience the very best of bizarre, out of the box platforming, but the conflicting, dark layers lurking at the heart of its cast. Funny, freaky and able to deliver an emotional gut punch when the moment calls for it, this one’s a real gem.

“Firewatch” (2016)

If there ever was a game that you should go into with as little information as possible, it would be this luscious and painfully human jaunt through a National Park. What makes Firewatch shine is how the two prongs of its story interconnect. On the one hand you have Henry, a fire lookout, and his growing relationship with supervisor Deliliah, which can possibly bloom into a beautiful yet trepidations entanglement. And on the other hand, you have a year’s old mystery concerning an unresolved death, and an unseen figure seemingly following the pair’s every move. It may not be grandiose, but it is truly powerful, serving as another reminder about how life is above all else – a messy series of consequences we can either choose to face or flee from.

“Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden” (2024)

While its combat was indeed below sub-par, there’s no debating just how hard the phantasmic story of Antea and Red hit. In fact, we’d go as far as to say every side mission and encounter strewn across this ghost-filled game was exceptionally written. Every haunting had ever-increasing shades of grey to it, where the decision to either punish the human or banish the ghost became the furthest thing from simple. This all played into the wider story between our two Banishers, with the choice to either let Antea pass on or bring her back to life becoming consistently heavier. Love and loss are forever entangled, and this game expertly explores it with a fantastic occult edge to it.

“Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” (2017)

Games set across the realms of Norse mythology are dime a dozen these days, but we can confidently say none have tackled it in a manner quite like Senua. While the backdrop is filled with Nordic creatures and anecdotes, Senua’s journey to retake her lover from Helheim is first and foremost an intimate and unflinching portrayal of psychosis, trauma, grief, and how the monsters in the mind mingle with the nightmarish entities of yore. Paired with exquisite sound design and accurate representations of fractured mental health, Senua’s first outing was nothing short of a chilling triumph.

“Disco Elysium” (2019)

There are RPGs, and then there are RPGs. Offering near limitless freedom of choice, what Disco Elysium accomplishes is borderline profound – crafting a world rich with politics, history, intrigue and depravity, all of which slowly unravels as a broken and drunken detective deals with his own demons…as well as the vast amount of ideologies and innate character flaws that have all been given their own voices. It’s truly the zaniest of cocktails that nonetheless navigates the choppy waters of a police procedural while branching out with a staggering amount of choice depending on just how inept you wish to approach every encounter.

“Nobody Wants to Die” (2024)

The fact that this game isn’t a triple A title to begin with is a staggering feat in of itself, given the richness of its neo-noir world and crisp, delipidated visuals. Thankfully its murder mystery is just as compelling. In a future where immortality has been achieved by means of switching consciousness between bodies, an investigator is drawn into a high-profile case where the city’s elite are being systematically targeted by a serial killer, all the while his superiors want the results buried no matter what, leading to a bloody journey through the warped mindset of both the city’s most downtrodden and most influential. Bladerunner fans, eat your hearts out.

“The Forgotten City” (2021)

When the strength of your writing is so top tier you can seamlessly evolve it from a Skyrim mod to its own living, breathing title – you know you’ve crafted something special. A chance encounter with a portal leads an ordinary soul from modern times to ancient Rome, where its citizens live in fear of a curse that will inevitably turn them all to gold. Dialogue and puzzle solving are the name of the game here. Using the time loop mechanic to your advantage, shifting the outcome of the city’s fate, dealing with personal perils of its cast, all the way to its ungodly revelations - the story shapes around all of it. Pair that with exquisite pacing and progression, and you’ve got an industry darling on your hands.

“1000xResist” (2024)

To say that this might just be one of the greatest scripts in video game history is the furthest thing from exaggeration, and anyone who has stepped into the shoes of Watcher will undoubtedly echo that sentiment. In a future where the only remnants of humanity exist through cloning, we switch between the perspectives of various individuals, chronicling the rise of the AllMother, and the dismal future she creates following the extinction of all other life. Depression, identity, generational trauma, vengeance, faith, social friction, all perfectly realised in a sci-fi setting that will cling to you long after your final choice is made. This is a story that demands to be experienced.

Which of these video game narratives do you believe needs to be experienced by all? Let us know in the comments!